Context
Christchurch International Airport Ltd announced it had bought 750 ha near Tarras a new regional airport. While we had been aware of their investigations for some time and had sought clarification through three LGOMIA requests, the announcement appeared to catch everybody by surprise.
We saw this as a tremendous opportunity. The Queenstown Lakes could retain its all-important air connectivity while still getting the huge financial, urban planning, economic diversification and development value from closing Queenstown Airport. We’d presented our ‘new vision’ for an alpine knowledge campus on Frankton Flats less than two weeks ago.
All we asked was that council direct its staff to consider it within current work programmes. What could go wrong?
QLDC full council meeting
July 7, 2019
Hello, my name is John Hilhorst representing FlightPlan2050.
What excellent news we all received yesterday with the confirmation that Christchurch international airport has finalised its purchase of 750 ha near Tarras for a new world-class airport.
We call on you, our Council, to embrace this as a tremendous opportunity for our community. Many of our most contentious difficulties could now be resolved.
- Wānaka stakeholders group retain the special character of their airport and township.
- Expansion of the Queenstown air noise boundaries will no longer be a vexatious bunfight.
- Ongoing connectivity needed for our continued prosperity is assured.
And the best things:
- Our ratepayers don’t need to pay for it.
- We now can use Frankton Flats for an Alpine City, as per the discussion document we shared with you last month.
And
- The $1.2 billion that we can get for a rezoned Frankton doesn’t need to be spent on an airport. Council’s share would be more than $900 million. That is a massive amount that could be used by this Council to support the infrastructure and other investments that our district sorely needs.
The Alpine City proposal for Frankton Flats retains the full operation of helicopters from Frankton. And it would not be difficult to relocate fixed-wing GA to either Kingston aerodrome or to a new facility on Queenstown Hill.
The $1.2 billion Frankton land value, more now with the inclusion of Lot 6, is more than three times the high water of QAC’s total enterprise value. And now this doesn’t need to be tied up in an airport. So, Council can now much better use that money to promote our communities’ well-being through other investments throughout the district. With the Tarras airport it would make absolutely no sense to lock this massive amount of money up in an unnecessary airport on Frankton Flats.
Our analysis shows that the annual rates revenue from the rezoned Frankton land would exceed $16 million, even as bare land – more than 3 times any dividend QAC has paid Council – and will grow many times more as the land is developed.
As we shared last month, the development of an Alpine City on Frankton Flats provides a fantastic new pathway for this district:
- A route to greater prosperity through a diversified economy focused on knowledge-based enterprise.
- Regeneration of our valuable environment, a counter to urban sprawl, and reduce emissions, and
- enable far greater social well-being.
We ask that you embrace and actively support the initiative of Christchurch International Airport and use this to accelerate the development of the Alpine City opportunity to help our district embrace a much more prosperous future.
You could do this through your work on:
- the Spatial Plan,
- your 10-year District Plan,
- the recovery working group, and
- the new statement of intent QAC is to deliver by the end of October.
Thank you